January 4, 2017
Bolshoi Confidential
Simon Morrison
Professor of Music, Princeton University
Simon Morrison and Nancy Beck
Minutes of the 14th Meeting of the 75th Year
The meeting on January 4, 2017 was called to order by President Jock McFarlane. Julia Coale led the invocation. The minutes of the Dec. 14, 2016, meeting were read by Sandra Shapiro. Attendance was 110 members. A moment of silence was observed in honor of the Old Guard member William Bonino.
Guests to be nominated for membership were Nancy Becker, introduced by Bruce Schragger; John Hopfield, introduced by Claire Jacobus; Jan Safer, introduced by Robert Gittleman; and Richard Feinstein, introduced by Eliot Freeman. Four other guests were recognized.
The speaker, Simon Morrison, professor of music at Princeton University, was introduced by Nancy Beck. Professor Morrison specializes in 20th century music and especially Russian music.
His latest book is “Bolshoi Confidential,” a history of the Bolshoi Ballet.
Professor Morrison first posed the question about the original meanings behind “The Nutcracker” ballet, many of which we are no longer aware. For example, Tchaikovsky composed the ballet between 1885 and 1895 for the coronation of Czar Alexander III, who wanted a rapprochement with France, so the soldiers fighting the mice were dressed in French uniforms.
In 2013 the director of the Bolshoi was attacked with battery acid and urine thrown in his face, resulting in loss of most of his vision and his inability to continue work at the Bolshoi. There was great media coverage (meaning that the government was not concerned about the incident). A disaffected premier dancer was held responsible for hiring two thugs to attack the director. That dancer was since paroled and allowed to dance at the Bolshoi again and may even rejoin the ballet corps.
The Bolshoi is a blend of reality, myth and fiction. The dancers are mostly uneducated, other than in ballet. They live in a sealed environment and are like naïve children.
Was the acid throwing a one-off incident? Yes and no.
The Bolshoi has produced classic ballets but the company is like the show “Girls Behaving Badly.” Because of the terrible happenings within the company, great works have been created, and fame was gained outside Russia.
Dance does not keep good records and it disappears. With the 2006 renovations of the Bolshoi Theater, however, papers were found in the attic and basement and letters were found in the walls. Those include the original scores for “Little Satan” and “Swan Lake” and are being catalogued and will perhaps be digitized.
The Bolshoi was founded in 1776 by Michael Maddox, an Englishman from the Haymarket Theater. Apart from the serf theaters, there was no public theater in Moscow. Maddox received a loan from the Imperial Foundling Home, which required him to take in the children to sing and dance. The theater was burned and rebuilt twice in the 19th century.
Ballet was a second-tier art, below opera. The dancers held day jobs and other part-time work and were not all prostitutes as generally assumed. Ballerinas could inspire cults and claques at the theater to support them and denigrate other dancers. Those ballerinas were a symbol of freedom for girls.
The Bolshoi survived because Alexander III wanted to cultivate a Russian art form of nationalist dances. The Bolshoi was not like the Mariensky Theater in St. Petersburg and retained its vaudevillian, popular, virtuosic, nonclassical and improvisational character.
A phenomenal 20th century ballerina was Maya Plisetskaya, whose parents were killed in Stalin’s purges. Many dancers were sent to the Gulag. The Bolshoi’s director, Yuri Gregorovich, and male premier dancer Vladimir Vasiliev, were also proletarian stars. Professor Morrison showed videos of the amazing dancing of Plisetskaya and Vasiliev.
A Russian choreographer at American Ballet Theater in New York is reimagining some of the Soviet ballets. What would have happened to the Bolshoi without Stalin to champion its nationalist dances?
The Bolshoi retains its show business and flamboyant flavor and the open-heartedness of its dancers, as seen in the video of the Ratmatsky Basque Dance “Flames of Paris” shown by Professor Morrison.
Questions and Answers:
Respectfully submitted,
Julia Coale
Guests to be nominated for membership were Nancy Becker, introduced by Bruce Schragger; John Hopfield, introduced by Claire Jacobus; Jan Safer, introduced by Robert Gittleman; and Richard Feinstein, introduced by Eliot Freeman. Four other guests were recognized.
The speaker, Simon Morrison, professor of music at Princeton University, was introduced by Nancy Beck. Professor Morrison specializes in 20th century music and especially Russian music.
His latest book is “Bolshoi Confidential,” a history of the Bolshoi Ballet.
Professor Morrison first posed the question about the original meanings behind “The Nutcracker” ballet, many of which we are no longer aware. For example, Tchaikovsky composed the ballet between 1885 and 1895 for the coronation of Czar Alexander III, who wanted a rapprochement with France, so the soldiers fighting the mice were dressed in French uniforms.
In 2013 the director of the Bolshoi was attacked with battery acid and urine thrown in his face, resulting in loss of most of his vision and his inability to continue work at the Bolshoi. There was great media coverage (meaning that the government was not concerned about the incident). A disaffected premier dancer was held responsible for hiring two thugs to attack the director. That dancer was since paroled and allowed to dance at the Bolshoi again and may even rejoin the ballet corps.
The Bolshoi is a blend of reality, myth and fiction. The dancers are mostly uneducated, other than in ballet. They live in a sealed environment and are like naïve children.
Was the acid throwing a one-off incident? Yes and no.
The Bolshoi has produced classic ballets but the company is like the show “Girls Behaving Badly.” Because of the terrible happenings within the company, great works have been created, and fame was gained outside Russia.
Dance does not keep good records and it disappears. With the 2006 renovations of the Bolshoi Theater, however, papers were found in the attic and basement and letters were found in the walls. Those include the original scores for “Little Satan” and “Swan Lake” and are being catalogued and will perhaps be digitized.
The Bolshoi was founded in 1776 by Michael Maddox, an Englishman from the Haymarket Theater. Apart from the serf theaters, there was no public theater in Moscow. Maddox received a loan from the Imperial Foundling Home, which required him to take in the children to sing and dance. The theater was burned and rebuilt twice in the 19th century.
Ballet was a second-tier art, below opera. The dancers held day jobs and other part-time work and were not all prostitutes as generally assumed. Ballerinas could inspire cults and claques at the theater to support them and denigrate other dancers. Those ballerinas were a symbol of freedom for girls.
The Bolshoi survived because Alexander III wanted to cultivate a Russian art form of nationalist dances. The Bolshoi was not like the Mariensky Theater in St. Petersburg and retained its vaudevillian, popular, virtuosic, nonclassical and improvisational character.
A phenomenal 20th century ballerina was Maya Plisetskaya, whose parents were killed in Stalin’s purges. Many dancers were sent to the Gulag. The Bolshoi’s director, Yuri Gregorovich, and male premier dancer Vladimir Vasiliev, were also proletarian stars. Professor Morrison showed videos of the amazing dancing of Plisetskaya and Vasiliev.
A Russian choreographer at American Ballet Theater in New York is reimagining some of the Soviet ballets. What would have happened to the Bolshoi without Stalin to champion its nationalist dances?
The Bolshoi retains its show business and flamboyant flavor and the open-heartedness of its dancers, as seen in the video of the Ratmatsky Basque Dance “Flames of Paris” shown by Professor Morrison.
Questions and Answers:
- Overlap of ballerinas? A: tradition of mentoring and apprenticeship, providing a pension for older dancers. Ballet is a “cruel art.” Plisetskaya could only travel after her prime dancing years when she had married and with a personal appeal to and permission from Khrushchev.
- Bolshoi defections vs. Mariensky/Kirov Ballet? A. No Bolshoi defections. Profiling and vetting more scrupulous, and the Bolshoi has been more “Slavic.”
- Training for early Bolshoi dancers? A: In first days in Moscow by Italian dancing masters in ballroom and court dances, plus physical culture, acrobatics and academic education. Petersburg had French dancing masters who were much more stable in their training than was the case in Moscow, which was more flexible with storytelling in its “Divertissements.”
- Name Bolshoi? A: Means “Grand Ballet” as opposed to small ballet.
- Involvement of Jewish financial backing? A: Moscow was beyond the Pale of Settlement and Jews could not be resident in St. Petersburg, easier in Moscow. Financing is now 40 percent government and 60 percent private. Racial discrimination is greatest against Germans, then Jews, then gays.
- The Bolshoi is called the “State Academic Theater.” The state can veto what is presented, there is to be training for dancers, and it is a theater.
Respectfully submitted,
Julia Coale